The Institute Library in Brown 102C Dartmouth Library DDI 09 page Dartmouth Library Catalog WorldCat
WorldCat is a useful search engine like Google Scholar or Ebsco. It is especially useful for searching through Masters and Doctoral theses. Google Books
When using Google Books, you can take a screen shot of the book, save the file as a PDF, and then use OCR software/services to convert the text to word format. If you find a good card in a book, go to the library and check the book out. A good strategy is to check 20 pages before and 20 pages after that page.
Scholarly Journals
Search 360
This is a relatively complicated search engine, but if you have the patience for a very broad search of all of Dartmouth's databases this can do it. Google Scholar
While on Dartmouth Secure check the "Resources @ Dartmouth" link either next to or under the title of the article--it will list several databases that the article is available in and will often include an html format of the article. If you find a useful article, click the "Cited by" link under the article title; this will give you all of the articles that cite that article and may be equally useful. At home, use Google Scholar to get article citations that you can ILL from your school or local library, and try the "Search the Web" function. EBSCO JSTOR Project Muse
Project Muse is especially useful for critical articles but also has other humanities topics, particularly democracy studies. Most Project Muse articles are also available in HTML and PDF formats (so if you're using Google Scholar always look to see if an article is available via Project Muse). Science Direct
In addition to science-related materials, Science Direct offers a number of humanities articles. Following footnotes in Science Direct is especially easy because most of the articles in the footnotes section are directly linked to the full text. Science Direct will also find related articles for you, which will usually pop up in a scrollable box on the right side of a page of an article. Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Websites
Google
When using Google, use general searches and terms. Google doesn't think like debaters, so instead of doing a search like "economy high" search "economic" "progress". Also, check out the Google Cheat Sheet for other useful search techniques in Google. Google Proximity Search
This function allows you to search for terms within 1-3 words of each other. For example, you can search for articles where the term "military withdrawal" appears within 1-3 words from "Okinawa" in either direction. Think Tanks Columbia Univ Africa Resources
News Articles
Google News
Allows you to search recent news articles on any subject. In the advanced Google News search you can choose dates to search after or in between, or limit out publications from certain countries or regions. Lexis-Nexis
If using LexisNexis, try using the "Power Search" option and make sure to search all news (listed as "News, All" under the sources category). While you are at the Academic main page, try using the Legal resources for law reviews, federal and state court cases, and briefs. Also check out LexisNexis congressional publications to search congressional testimony, hearings, and reports. Factiva
Factiva is very similar to LexisNexis in terms of search techniques. Unlike LexisNexis, Factiva has fulltext access to the Wall Street Journal.
Helpful Resources About Debate and Electronic Research
College Casebook for the current year
Use the college casebooks (current and past) to keep up-to-date with new arguments on the college circuit and to find cites. It is especially useful to find cites for impacts--just use the search tool in the upper left-hand corner of the main page. College Casebook - archived
Google Search Appliance for indexing Google Reader (to keep track of Think Tanks, etc with RSS feeds)
Subscribe to useful think tanks and websites--they will send you an update in your Google Reader for new publications, events, etc. Also use the reader to subscribe to specific searches through Google and Google News. For example, Google News can send you every article containing "Obama" AND "political capital." Google Alerts Page2RSSFeed (to convert any page to an RSS feed for your google reader)
Policy Experts
Allows you to search for and link to think tanks, organizations and experts specializing in various issue areas (like foreign policy).
Table of Contents
DDI Research Tips & Policies
Books
The Institute Library in Brown 102CDartmouth Library DDI 09 page
Dartmouth Library Catalog
WorldCat
WorldCat is a useful search engine like Google Scholar or Ebsco. It is especially useful for searching through Masters and Doctoral theses.
Google Books
When using Google Books, you can take a screen shot of the book, save the file as a PDF, and then use OCR software/services to convert the text to word format. If you find a good card in a book, go to the library and check the book out. A good strategy is to check 20 pages before and 20 pages after that page.
Scholarly Journals
Search 360This is a relatively complicated search engine, but if you have the patience for a very broad search of all of Dartmouth's databases this can do it.
Google Scholar
While on Dartmouth Secure check the "Resources @ Dartmouth" link either next to or under the title of the article--it will list several databases that the article is available in and will often include an html format of the article. If you find a useful article, click the "Cited by" link under the article title; this will give you all of the articles that cite that article and may be equally useful. At home, use Google Scholar to get article citations that you can ILL from your school or local library, and try the "Search the Web" function.
EBSCO
JSTOR
Project Muse
Project Muse is especially useful for critical articles but also has other humanities topics, particularly democracy studies. Most Project Muse articles are also available in HTML and PDF formats (so if you're using Google Scholar always look to see if an article is available via Project Muse).
Science Direct
In addition to science-related materials, Science Direct offers a number of humanities articles. Following footnotes in Science Direct is especially easy because most of the articles in the footnotes section are directly linked to the full text. Science Direct will also find related articles for you, which will usually pop up in a scrollable box on the right side of a page of an article.
Columbia International Affairs Online (CIAO)
Websites
GoogleWhen using Google, use general searches and terms. Google doesn't think like debaters, so instead of doing a search like "economy high" search "economic" "progress". Also, check out the Google Cheat Sheet for other useful search techniques in Google.
Google Proximity Search
This function allows you to search for terms within 1-3 words of each other. For example, you can search for articles where the term "military withdrawal" appears within 1-3 words from "Okinawa" in either direction.
Think Tanks
Columbia Univ Africa Resources
News Articles
Google NewsAllows you to search recent news articles on any subject. In the advanced Google News search you can choose dates to search after or in between, or limit out publications from certain countries or regions.
Lexis-Nexis
If using LexisNexis, try using the "Power Search" option and make sure to search all news (listed as "News, All" under the sources category). While you are at the Academic main page, try using the Legal resources for law reviews, federal and state court cases, and briefs. Also check out LexisNexis congressional publications to search congressional testimony, hearings, and reports.
Factiva
Factiva is very similar to LexisNexis in terms of search techniques. Unlike LexisNexis, Factiva has fulltext access to the Wall Street Journal.
Helpful Resources About Debate and Electronic Research
General Info
Berthiaume's tips for Electronic ResearchDictionary of Debate Terms
Flowing Template
OCR
CometDocsEnsode (to unlock pdfs)
Free Ocr (web-based)
FreeOcr (for PC)
PDF-to-Word converter
Researching
College Casebook for the current yearUse the college casebooks (current and past) to keep up-to-date with new arguments on the college circuit and to find cites. It is especially useful to find cites for impacts--just use the search tool in the upper left-hand corner of the main page.
College Casebook - archived
del.icio.us (Social bookmarking)
Google Search Appliance for indexing
Google Reader (to keep track of Think Tanks, etc with RSS feeds)
Subscribe to useful think tanks and websites--they will send you an update in your Google Reader for new publications, events, etc. Also use the reader to subscribe to specific searches through Google and Google News. For example, Google News can send you every article containing "Obama" AND "political capital."
Google Alerts
Page2RSSFeed (to convert any page to an RSS feed for your google reader)
Policy Experts
Allows you to search for and link to think tanks, organizations and experts specializing in various issue areas (like foreign policy).
Zotero (for FireFox)